ADE launches social media awareness campaign "SMACtalk" for students, teachers, parents

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — The Arkansas Department of Education is launching a new campaign to bring awareness to the use of social media.

The campaign called "SMACtalk" launched last year and will be even bigger this year.

“When we first launched SMACtalk last year, our goal was to share helpful tips and resources for safely using social media and the internet,” ADE Secretary Johnny Key said. “The campaign, however, grew beyond what we expected, largely due to the overwhelmingly positive reception from educators, parents, and students. We are excited to expand the campaign this school year and will provide new resources, opportunities for involvement, and heightened awareness to this issue.”

With more kids online with virtual learning since the start of the pandemic, the ADE wants to make sure they’re as safe as possible. Ray Girdler with research and technology said the ADE recognizes the opportunities that computers, the internet, and social media bring for learning and life.

"We want parents and teachers having an open conversation with their kids about how to be safe and how to be healthy when they’re on the internet," Girdler said. "This idea is like, 'Are you using social media in a way to make a purposeful difference?' And that’s what SMACtalk is trying to do."

However, Girdler said the department of education also understands social media can come with hazards.

"Cyberbullying is part of the campaign, because when you spend more time online all of those behaviors that happen at the school level kind of go with it," he said. "Knowing it’s easy to hide behind a screen and so yes, it’s, not only is it about how to address or tips for parents and students about how to address cyberbullying but really how to be a positive influence as well."

Although social media has been around since before the COVID-19 pandemic began, Girdler said it did heighten the use.

"Connectivity increased, the number of devices that are going to students increased, time online increased for all of us," He said. "Now we’re in a situation where we’re spending more time online than we ever did before, and when we spend more time online, it’s really about what are they doing?"

The campaign will focus on online etiquette and developing healthy virtual relationships, how to properly vet information received online, privacy protection tips and suggestions, avoiding online dangers, and knowing when to “unplug” from social media. Resources will provide awareness and encourage ongoing communication between teachers, students, and parents.

Additional resources this year will include a parenting blog that features a first-person perspective about internet safety; posters, videos, articles, activities, and links to websites for schools and districts to share; new teacher podcasts; new videos featuring students’ perspectives; and links to games and other resources.

"All of that content will be a way to really get and engage and motivate people to bring that conversation to the forefront with their kids," Girdler said.

All of that is coming in October, but to kick things off, they partnered up with "Mr. Steve the Music Man," who has dedicated his life to bringing the joy of music to kids.

"Right now we have a contest with Mr. Steve the Music Man, so if you go online right now you can see our brand new music video," he said.

Every school that shares the Facebook post featuring the video will be entered into a drawing to win a free concert by Mr. Steve at their school. The contest with Mr. Steve the Music Man is open through Sept. 17.

"It has a really good beat, it will get stuck in your head, it’s really easy to share."